Web, scripting, and open-source have been boosted in the next version of the ever-popular IntelliJ IDAE, released this week in early access.
Codenamed Maia, and due this fall, IDEA 9 wraps in features designed to keep the charged-for Java development environment in the running against free tools based on Eclipse.
Maia will …

COMMENTS

Is IDEA really 2nd place in Jave IDEs?

...I thought Sun's Netbeans IDE was in second place. Given that it, too, is free and has been around longer than either Eclipse or IDEA, you have to show some evidence to prove that IntelliJ's product has greater adoption...

Good luck

Eclipse's support for other languages makes it a clear winner in this space. See Carbide from Nokia which, while buggy/limited by eclipse, is making it the clear leader in Symbian and plain C/C++ development.

Eclipse FTW innit

Well, I mean to say. I've used a couple of IDEs in my time and, while Eclipse has many features which seem obscure and not of immediate use to me (and many confusing corners where I dare not stray) it does have the significant advantages of being open-source and extensible, which means that it can be used as the framework on which to base pretty much any more specific development environment. From Salesforce.com's force.com environment to the Google Web Toolkit. I mean, good luck Maia and all, but don't expect miracles.

Tombo

Back in my Java days (2003-2005) we had the opportunity to choose our development platform. I started with Eclipse because it was free. One of our developers pointed to IntelliJ and it was much better IMO. Eclipse tends to be clunky and unintuitive and therefore gets in the way, which is what you don't want from a development tool.

IDEA much better

I've used both eclipse and IDEA for long periods of time, and there is no doubt that IDEA is vastly superior in terms of capabilities and intuitive usability.

Yes it is true that eclipse can be extended with plugins, but so often they don't work properly and end up making things worse. Configuring eclipse is less fun than banging your head against a wall repeatedly, whereas IDEA just seems to automatically figure everything out for you straight away.

I think the real difference is that IDEA pushes the user towards code modification via a process of refactoring (which is automated so all your code changes at once) whereas eclipse only has very basic refactoring functionality and so you change your code and then it tells you everywhere in the codebase that is now broken and you go and fix the problems manually. I know which I prefer...

Free as in freedom to be stupid

The vast majority of productivity improving features have been, are, and always will be copied from IntelliJ IDEA. This IDE sets the bar - the others follow - much later.

People have paying for the privilege of using this IDE since version 1.0 and they'll continue to pay for it. Some people don't mind forking out a paltry $250 for a tool they use all day, every week, all year long.

Others do. Other people, despite spending their lives being paid to write software, are doomed by their own myopia to use inferior products because they believe software should be free. This stinking horde, ignorant of their own rank hypocrisy, should be forced into a hippie commune where they can dance around naked singing whale songs of praise to the multimillion-dollar beneficence of their S&P 500 multinational benefactors, without which, this nerd love-fest of self-congratulatory socialism would not be possible.